It’s true. Mitt Romney really does like firing people. With a somewhat condescending tone after Newt Gingrich paints a grand picture of his dream of a moon colony (not that it wasn’t a bald pander or anything), Mitt lets him know that corporate investors would guffaw at him right before they fired him. The joy Mitt gets out of saying “you’re fired” just shines through. Channeling his inner Donald Trump, perhaps?
BLITZER: We’re going to move on, but go ahead, Governor Romney.
ROMNEY: I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say, “You’re fired.”
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.
Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories. (MORE)
At some basic level, climate change shouldn’t be hard to grasp. Fossil-fuel burning — the essence of our civilization since the industrial revolution — dumps prodigious amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. As it happens, 2010 was another banner year for carbon dioxide production; the 5.9% rise in CO2 emissions was the “biggest jump ever recorded.” That greenhouse gas, in turn, traps heat and so warms the planet. The results are clear enough for anyone to see. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000. Last year was the ninth warmest on record, despite an expected cooling effect from a strong La Niña temperature pattern in the Pacific Ocean.
More heat means more turbulence, which means more extreme weather events, which have clearly been on the rise — more wetness, more droughts, fiercer storms. In that category, 2011 was definitely a year for the record books, with an unprecedented 14 weather events that each caused $1 billion or more in damage. More extreme weather means more human misery, relatively predictable globally, but reasonably unexpected when it actually hits locally.
The urge not to believe that we are despoiling our own planet has meant that we’ve been slow to develop alternate energy sources, but not slow to grow economically. What that means, of course, is that the search only intensifies for more fossil fuels, ever tougher to get as time goes on and ever “dirtier” (in greenhouse gas terms) to produce. (MORE)
January 27th, 2012 | Posted in Climate change | Comments Off
Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out appeared on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday night to discuss how former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney indirectly helped fund so-called “pray away the gay” therapy.
The Tyler Charitable Foundation, set up and funded by the Romneys, donated $10,000 in 2006 to the Massachusetts Family Institute, which promotes the ex-gay therapy. The charity also donated $25,000 to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which opposes same sex marriage and has compared LGBT activists to the terrorist group al Qaeda.
Besen noted that one of the ex-gay organizations promoted by the Massachusetts Family Institute claims that gay men can become more masculine “by drinking Gatorade and calling their friends ‘dude.’” (MORE/SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO)
January 27th, 2012 | Posted in LGBT, Mitt Romney | Comments Off
Rick Santorum is tired, almost broke — and going home.
The former Pennsylvania senator is leaving Florida just days before the Tuesday primary that even he expects to deal him a third consecutive loss.
Santorum says he would rather spend his Saturday sitting at his kitchen table to do his taxes than campaigning in a state where the race for the Republican presidential nomination has become a two-man fight between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.
The cash-strapped candidate acknowledges that he simply can’t keep up with the GOP front-runners in Florida.
“We’re going to talk about the Constitution and talk about being a strong conservative,” Santorum said at an event here this week. “And that’s all we can do.”
Outside advisers are urging him to pack up in Florida completely and not spend another minute in a state where he is cruising toward a loss. (MORE)
January 27th, 2012 | Posted in Rick Santorum | Comments Off
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession in southeastern Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 32 people — half of them policemen who were guarding the march — in the latest brazen attack since the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Police officials said the blast occurred at 11:00 a.m. in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a person killed the day before. They said 65 people were wounded in the attack, including 16 policemen.
Hospital officials confirmed the death toll.
Salam Hussein, a 42-year-old grocery store owner in Zafaraniyah said he was watching the funeral procession, which was heavily guarded by police, when the blast blew out his store windows and injured one of his workers.
“It was a huge explosion,” Hussein said. As he took his worker to the hospital, Hussein said he saw cars engulfed in flames, “human flesh scattered around and several mutilated bodies in a pool of blood” around where the attacker’s car had exploded. (MORE)
January 27th, 2012 | Posted in Baghdad, bombing | Comments Off
Forget the so-called liberal media. Right now Newt Gingrich’s most ardent critics are conservative pundits and columnists, many of whom have launched aggressive campaigns to discredit him and trip up his run for the Republican nomination.
This crew has largely been lukewarm about Gingrich’s chief rival, Mitt Romney, considering him too moderate. But their open criticism of Gingrich is evidence that for all their misgivings about the former Massachusetts governor, they see him as a much stronger contender against President Barack Obama.
To hear columnists Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer and the conservative media aggregator Matt Drudge tell it, Gingrich is an inconsistent conservative who didn’t fully support President Ronald Reagan and whose undisciplined nature mirrored that of President Bill Clinton, who was Gingrich’s Democratic adversary in the 1990s.
The conservative media hits against Gingrich have come with force just as the GOP establishment seems to be rallying around Romney in earnest, perhaps out of fear that Gingrich may end up winning the nomination. (MORE)
A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion that companies haven’t repaid from the financial bailout, and some of that will never be recovered.
The bailout launched at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 will continue to exist for years, says a report issued Thursday by Christy Romero, the acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout. Some bailout programs, such as the effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing mortgage payments, will last as late as 2017, costing the government an additional $51 billion or so.
The gyrating stock market has slowed the Treasury Department’s efforts to sell off its stakes in 458 bailed-out companies, the report says. They include insurer American International Group Inc., General Motors Co. and Ally Financial Inc.
If Treasury plans to sell its stock in the three companies at or above the price where taxpayers would break even on their investment — $28.73 a share for AIG, $53.98 for GM — it may take a long time for the market to rebound to that level, the report says. AIG’s shares closed Wednesday at $25.31, while GM ended at $24.92. Ally isn’t publicly traded.
It will also be challenging for the government to get out of the 458 companies as the market remains volatile and banks struggle keep afloat in the tough economy, it says. (MORE)
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, President Obama today acknowledged that he has made mistakes during his presidency but defended the steps his administration has taken to create jobs and improve the economy.
“I second-guess constantly… I make a mistake, you know, every hour, every day,” he told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, laughing. “There’re always things that you’re learning in the job. And I have no doubt that I’m a better president now than the day I took office just because you get more experience. But when you look at the broad outlines of what we did, had it not been for the steps we took our economy would be profoundly weaker than we are right now.”
The president was responding to a question by a Yahoo! user asking him if there’s something that he learned about himself and wished he had done in the first three years.
The president, who is in Las Vegas today promoting his energy agenda, cited the auto bailout and the Recovery Act as examples of his administration’s successes. Addressing criticism that the economy hasn’t grown very quickly in the last three years, Obama said he laid out the foundations that will position the country to continue growing. (MORE with video)
Kyle Williams probably hasn’t been opening much of his mail recently. The 49ers receiver who had the disastrous NFC championship game has probably seen and heard quite enough from the general public for now. Death threats as a response to football mistakes can probably make a man shy.
There’s at least one letter I hope he got, though. Ben Mankiewicz at The Huffington Post passes along a letter written to Williams by his friend’s little boy: a 7-year-old named Owen. Owen loves his 49ers and was as crestfallen as any other Niners fan when the Giants pulled out the overtime victory. Here’s Owen’s story, from Mankiewicz:
He was crying, saying of Kyle Williams, with the distinct sobs of a seven-year-old between each word, “But… why… did he… have to… fumble?”
[...]
Trying to get his son to stop crying, Michael asked him, “If you feel this way, how sad do you think Kyle Williams is?”
Owen paused a second, then asked his dad, “Can I write him a letter to make him feel better?”
One cannot forget that the contemporary Republican Party was born with the Southern Strategy, winning over the former Jim Crow South to its side of the political aisle, and as a backlash against the civil rights movement. This is a formula for a politics of white grievance mongering and white victimology; a dreamworld where white conservatives are oppressed, their rights infringed upon by a tyrannical federal government and elite liberal media that are beholden to the interests of the “undeserving poor,” racial minorities, gays, and immigrants. (SNIP)
Racism is an assault on the common good. Racism also does the work of dividing and conquering people with common interests. While the 2012 Republican candidates are stirring the pot of white racial anxiety, this is a means to a larger end—the destruction of the country’s social safety net, in support of vicious economic austerity policies, and protecting the kleptocrats and financiers at the expense of the working and middle classes.
Here are the top 10 racist moments by the Republican presidential candidates so far:
#1 Newt Gingrich puts Juan Williams “in his place” for daring to ask an unpleasant question during the South Carolina debate. This was the most pernicious example of old-school white racism at work in the 2012 Republican primary campaign. Newt Gingrich, a son of the South who grew up in the shadow of legendary Jim Crow racist Lester Maddox, is an expert on the language and practice of white racism (in both its subtle and obvious forms). He has ridden high with Republican audiences by suggesting that black people are lazy, and their children should be given mops and brooms in order to learn the value of hard work.
#2 Herman Cain, in one of the most grotesque performances in post-civil rights-era politics to date, deftly plays his designated role as an African-American advocate for some of the Tea Party and New Right’s most racist policy positions. Most notably, in numerous interviews Cain alluded to the Democratic Party as keeping African Americans on a “plantation,” and that black conservatives were “runaway slaves” who were uniquely positioned to “free” the minds of their brothers and sisters. The implication of his ahistorical and bizarre allusion to the Democratic Party and chattel slavery was clear: black Americans are stupid, childlike and incapable of making their own political decisions, as Cain publicly observed that “only thirty percent of black people are thinking for themselves.”
Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the homeland security committee, plans to introduce a bill in the coming days that would require a new health study of the X-ray body scanners used to screen airline passengers nationwide.
The Transportation Security Administration began using the machines for routine screening in 2009 and sped up deployment after the so-called underwear bomber tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day of that year.
But the X-ray scanners have caused concerns because they emit low levels of ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and mutate genes, potentially leading to cancer. ProPublica and PBS NewsHour reported in November that the TSA had glossed over cancer concerns. Studies suggested that six or 100 airline passengers each year could develop cancer from the machines.
Shortly after our report, the European Union separately announced that it would prohibit X-ray body scanners at its airports for the time being “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”
The new bill drafted by Collins would require the TSA to choose an independent laboratory to measure the radiation emitted by a scanner currently in use at an airport checkpoint. The peer-reviewed study, to be submitted to Congress, would also evaluate the safety mechanisms on the machine and determine whether there are any biological signs of cellular damage caused by the scans. (MORE)
The Occupy Wall Street movement should spend today doing a nice little victory lap, because it seemed for all the world like its members were ghost-writers on President Obama’s State of the Union speechwriting staff. Though he never directly mentioned the movement itself, Mr. Obama spent a great deal of time on Tuesday night underscoring many of Occupy’s most central themes: income inequality, tax fairness, and the need to rein in the illegal and immoral behavior of the nation’s largest financial institutions.
Talk is cheap, of course; despite all of Mr. Obama’s high-flown rhetoric, his administration is reportedly prepared to cut a disgracefully easy deal with the five banks most directly responsible for the financial meltdown, giving his so-pretty words a hollow ring:
Five banks – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial (formerly GMAC) -would pay the federal government $25 billion. About $17 billion would be used to reduce the principal that some struggling homeowners owe, $5 billion more would be used for future federal and state programs and $3 billion would be used to help homeowners refinance at 5.25 percent. Civil immunity would be granted to the banks for any role in foreclosure fraud, and there would be no investigations.
There are several reasons why this is could be a terrible deal. For one, the dollar amount is inadequate in relation to both the tremendous loss of wealth via mortgage fraud and the hefty balance sheets of these massive companies. Furthermore, the banks might be allowed to use investor money instead of their own funds – this makes the penalty even lower. Beyond all that: it’s extremely hard to justify the absence of investigations and punishment for mortgage fraud that was so widespread and so damaging to people’s lives.
Thanks to Occupy Wall Street, in the State of the Union this week President Obama struck some of his most populist themes yet. He wants to tax millionaires, bring back manufacturing and prosecute the big banks. He touted his Wall Street reforms saying the big banks are “no longer allowed to make risky bets with customers deposits” and “the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again.”
But are we safe from the next big bank bailout?
Many experts are dubious and Wednesday the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen decided to test the theory in the most direct way possible. They used the administrative law process to formally petition the nation’s top bank regulators to move swiftly to break up Bank of America (BofA) asserting in their petition: “The bank poses a grave threat to U.S. financial stability by any reasonable definition of that phrase.”
A Ticking Time Bomb
BofA is not just big, its behemoth. With assets of $2.1 trillion, equal to more than 14 percent of U.S. GDP, it is bigger than many small countries. Yet, its stock is trading at $7.
Those who felt let down by Newt Gingrich’s muted performance at Monday night’s debate—and, really, who among us did not?—should expect to get their money’s worth. Live from Jacksonville at 8 p.m., it’s Wolf Blitzer’s turn to be Newt’s media-elite piñata (and, happily, audience reactions will not be discouraged this time).
But the former house speaker will have many more targets at which to aim his barbs—especially after a furious two-day bombardment by Mitt Romney and the right-wing media elite.
Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., and the editors of The National Review—to name a few—have declared all-out war on Gingrich. “Our Bill Clinton,” Tyrrell called him. “Re-elect Obama: Vote Newt!” Coulter declared. The Drudge Report featured no fewer than 14 anti-Gingrich headlines at mid-afternoon today.
On a day when Gingrich’s campaign admitted that he lied to John King last Thursday about offering ABC News interviews with people who would contradict his second wife’s accusations—the day after he had to retract an attack ad calling Romney “anti-immigrant” at Marco Rubio’s behest—and with polls showing his South Carolina momentum slipping away, Gingrich’s ire-meter will surely be dialed up to 10.
Thanks, Supreme Court:
Outside spending on the presidential campaign has doubled from 2008. The total in Florida’s ad wars so far: $16 million. Despite a $5 million boost to a pro-Newt super PAC, the Romney side is spending twice as much on TV ads in Florida. SEIU and pro-Obama super PAC team up to expose Romney’s dos caras (two faces) on immigration. New York magazine warns of a “coming tsunami of slime,” thanks in part to super PACs. They’ll be even more influential in congressional races.
Over the last few years, the use of tasers by police has been the center of some controversy amongst a few members of the general public. While the devices were originally justified as a means to subdue violent criminals without using lethal force, the fact is that tasers have not replaced lethal force at all. They have, however, replaced reason and common sense.
Instead of a tool to reduce lethal contact, tasers have become nothing more than cattle prods to be deployed against anyone who does not immediately obey a police command, regardless of how illegal or ludicrous that command may be.
In an example of just this type of situation, one may look at the case of Patricia Franks-Martin, a 43-year-old schoolteacher from Galivants Ferry, South Carolina.
On January 6, 2012, Franks-Martin was riding (not driving) in her vehicle in Horry County around 10 pm when police pulled behind the truck and decided to run her license plates, which were expired. As a result, the officers pulled the vehicle over.
When the driver stopped the truck, Franks-Martin allegedly got out of the car and questioned the officers as to why they ran the plates on the vehicle, which belonged to her. Officers then demanded that she present them with her license which she allegedly refused to do. The officers claim that she then became irate and began to use profanity, even going so far as to drink a beer in front of them. (MORE)
By David Lerman and Roxana Tiron Bloomberg Businessweek
With an eye on Asia and a constrained wallet, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a plan to create a “smaller and leaner” military that will be “rapidly deployable and technologically advanced.”
Former President George W. Bush also promised to create an “agile, lethal, readily deployable” military — until the prolonged ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq required a larger Army and more heavily armored vehicles.
This time, defense analysts say, fiscal pressures, technological advances, changing threats and an aversion to another land war may make a military transformation more achievable.
“I think the ideas work better now than in 2001,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, in an e-mail. “The plausibility of simultaneous large ground wars is substantially less than before. Meanwhile, maritime threats have grown greater in the Persian Gulf and the rise of China is even more impressive.” (MORE)
Less than a week after a stinging setback in South Carolina, Romney moved ahead of rival Newt Gingrich again in Florida polls on Thursday and turned in his strongest debate performance yet in a seesawing Republican presidential race.
Three new polls showed Romney taking a solid 7- or 8-point lead in Florida hours before his confident and aggressive debate performance put Gingrich on the defensive repeatedly in their final showdown ahead of Tuesday’s state primary.
“This was his best debate exactly when he needed it. Romney won the debate and he may well have won the primary,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said.
Romney, who saw his lead over Gingrich evaporate after a stinging 12-point defeat in South Carolina, also benefited on Thursday from a wave of new criticism of Gingrich from prominent conservative and party leaders.
It was the latest swing in momentum in a race that has seen many ebbs and flows. Gingrich earlier wiped out Romney’s lead in Florida polls after his South Carolina win, and the potential remains for more shifts in momentum. (MORE)
Sodapop Curtis did not announce Peyton Manning’s retirement. Whether or not Manning’s neck heals months from now will determine that. He did make it clear – in a strange way – that Manning’s 12-year run with the Indianapolis Colts is almost assuredly done.
Last week actor Rob Lowe went citizen journalist and tweeted that “Manning will retire today.” Lowe cited “my people” and later claimed the info came from a “pretty darn good source.”
It turned out to be completely inaccurate, but that hardly matters. That one ridiculous tweet by the man whose first major cinematic role was Sodapop the greaser in 1983’s “The Outsiders,” caused the Colts’ usually tranquil world to implode.
On Monday, Manning broke his silence and delivered an interview to columnist Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star that was stunning both in its timing and depth. Manning doesn’t do many exclusive interviews and he never criticizes the Colts, but here he was describing a beaten-down mood around the facility, questioning personnel moves of owner Jim Irsay and setting the groundwork with fans that if he winds up gone, it wasn’t his choice. (MORE)
Former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole is unleashing a torrent of criticism at Newt Gingrich, saying he was a “one man band” who always wanted “his way or the highway.”
In an open letter released by Mitt Romney’s campaign, Dole comes out swinging against Gingrich just five days before the Florida primary. The GOP presidential candidates meet at 8 p.m. ET tonight in their latest debate.
Dole endorsed Romney right before the Iowa caucuses. Nearly 16 years after leaving the Senate to run for the White House for a third time, the former GOP leader is very much part of the Republican establishment.
“In my opinion if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer,” Dole writes. “He has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president we could have confidence in.”
Here is partial text of Dole’s letter.
I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.
**NOTE** Since this is a continuing story, if you’d like to catch up by reading Parts 1 & 2, Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE. – JS
A story of what may have happened, circa 400 AD in the Mayan city-state of Copan, with historical liberties taken:
Mulac awoke in his private chamber having spent the last evening with wife number three. While most Mayan couples were monogamous, men could be polygamous.
While spouse number three was half his age, Mulac found himself more often drawn to her arms for comfort, as the two other wives had recently banded together and seemed to constantly remind him of his shortcomings. Whether it be a leaky palace roof, the quality of the domestic help (slaves), or Mulac’s recent habit of not cleaning up his spilled blue stones (see Part 2).
Mulac met his most current wife while administering the department responsible for recruitment of potential sacrificial virgins. He had become infatuated upon sight and after hearing of her uncertainty as to whether she was sold on a “to-be” short lived career as a sacrificial virgin, Mulac offered her an opportunity to become ineligible for such.
Six months later, and Mulac was even more convinced that the age difference between them was a blessing. Anymore his other two wives, closer to his age, didn’t seem to buy into his promises or believe his excuses.
If the higher Priests could see the future, perhaps there could be hope that by the end of the Long Calendar (5,000 years) females will have accepted the superior male role and perhaps spend their alone hours planning on how to make a man’s life even better.
Other than wife number three, Mulac’s other constant companion, around the palace, was his “Shollo”, or hairless dog, a prized pet. The servants were under strict orders to cater to Xol’s (name) every need and protect him from running loose for fear that should the dog wander off, it would likely end up in the stew-pot of a commoner.
Wives should be more like Xol, Mulac pondered, all licks and no nagging.
The sad chapter of the Haditha massacre may have been put to bed in a legal sense when Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich received an incomparably light sentence, walking away with no jail time, for ordering the troops under his command to “shoot first, ask questions later” in an incident that killed 24 innocent Iraqis. But this issue isn’t close to being over for the Iraqis in the village of Haditha who heard the news.
In this town which saw 24 unarmed civilians die in a U.S. raid seven years ago, residents expressed disbelief and sadness that the Marine sergeant who told his troops to “shoot first, ask questions later” reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid jail time.
They were outraged both at the American military justice system and at the refusal of Iraq’s Shiite-led government to condemn the killings and at least try to bring those responsible to face trial in this country.
“We are deeply disappointed by this unfair deal,” said Khalid Salman Rasif, an Anbar provincial council member from Haditha. “The U.S. soldier will receive a punishment that is suitable for a traffic violation.”
An Oklahoma Republican is pushing a bill to outlaw the use of human fetuses in food, because, as he says, “there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.”
State Sen. Ralph Shortey introduced a bill on Tuesday “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.”
Though he has allowed that he is not aware of this occurring in Oklahoma, or anywhere for that matter, Shortey cited research he did on the internet that claimed that some companies use embryonic stem cells to help develop artificial flavoring. “It would be a public relations nightmare for a company to use” aborted human fetuses for R&D, Shortey told KRMG Radio, so when asked they usually say something like “we strive to do things ethically.”
“I’m not entirely sure if there are any” companies doing this, he continued. “But the fact is that there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors. And if that is happening — because it is a possibility — and if it’s happening then I just don’t think it should even be an option for a company.” (MORE)
The Bible is being used to rob of us of religious freedoms and on a larger scale, to destroy the Constitution itself. The imagery of the Book of Revelation is frequently used by Christian fundamentalists to sow discord and fear: fear of the other, fear of divine wrath should tolerance be shown to the divinely despised other. This is the context of every Republican hopeful’s platform in 2012. The righteous wrath of God is said to sit over our heads, ready to be unleashed should America not pray and repent of its sins. But there are problems with these images most fundamentalists are not aware of. Their antecedents are pagan. They go much further back than Christianity to the Old Testament, and further back even than that – to the god the Old Testament loves to hate: the West Semitic (Canaanite) storm god, Baal.
The imagery we see in Revelation 21.1-4 is far from original:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city and the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
We’ve been following the ways that politicians and special interests try to influence the redistricting process for their own gain, often at the expense of voters.
An article this week in The New Yorker suggests that President Barack Obama’s own political rise in Chicago was partially the result of gerrymandering.
As The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported, Obama worked with a Democratic redistricting consultant to draw a state senate district tailored for him.
Lizza wrote about the incident four years ago, detailing how Obama had learned the hard way that a University of Chicago academic was not necessarily someone whom all of Chicago’s African-American voters would trust.
In 1999, Obama suffered a serious defeat when he tried to take on longtime South Side Congressman Bobby Rush, who represents a district that is more than 62 percent African-American.
Two years later, with the Democrats in control of Illinois redistricting, Obama was apparently able to reshape his state senate district to his own specifications, which included drawing in wealthy supporters from Chicago’s Gold Coast. (MORE)
Tuesday night’s State of the Union response by Mitch Daniels was remarkable before he uttered a single word. Daniels’ response was the first to be delivered from a building surrounded by dozens of police cars and chanting activists, by a man on the cusp of delivering a body blow to workers’ rights. “We were surprised, frankly,” says Jeff Harris of the Indiana AFL-CIO, “that the Republicans would choose somebody who is in open war with his constituents and his citizens and put him up as the national speaker for the Republican Party.” For anyone who thought that progressive victories in Wisconsin and Ohio would lead the national Republican party to tone down the union-bashing, last night was a rude awakening.
Harris, the federation’s Communications Director, says Daniels “has done a phenomenal job of coming off as an average Hoosier, where he rolls around in an RV and wears a flannel shirt, but underneath, he has sold off our resources, he has privatized our welfare system…He is in the midst of busting unions and taking away our right to collectively bargain by making Right to Work his number one legislative priority.”
“Right to Work” is the deceptive title for a right-wing law attacking unions’ ability to wield power and stay solvent. Every remaining GOP presidential candidate has endorsed it, but none of them has pulled off what Daniels may be about to: making this 1% bill a statewide law.
Over the past month, Daniels has been leading the latest assault on workers’ rights in Indiana. His push has instigated near-daily protests by thousands of Hoosiers, both at the capitol and in the home districts of Indiana’s part-time legislators. That resistance, in turn, has inspired legislative boycotts by Indiana’s Democratic representatives, who’ve repeatedly – but not continuously – held “extended caucuses” for days to deny their Republican colleagues the required quorum to push through the bill. With two weeks until Indianapolis hosts the Super Bowl, the game could become the site of even larger protests – and no one knows whether Daniels can get his signature on the bill by then. (MORE)
In his answers to prosecutors, defense attorneys and a judge, the captain of the ill-fated cruise ship Costa Concordia admitted he made a “mistake” in colliding with rocks off the Italian island of Giglio.
However, in statements made during a phone conversation with a friend earlier this month, Capt. Francesco Schettino said managers pressured him to steer the ship to the area where the collision occurred, two Italian newspapers reported Wednesday.
Both Costa Cruises and authorities have criticized Schettino’s behavior. He is under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship when the vessel struck rocks and rolled over onto its side in the waters off the island on January 13.
A 16th body was found Tuesday on the ship. Sixteen others are missing from the roughly 4,200 people aboard the cruise liner — 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members — at the time of the collision. (MORE)
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in accident | Comments Off
By Gary G. Kohls Consortium News via Information Clearing House
From time to time, I read about condemnations of religion coming from non-religious groups, especially concerning the all-too-common violence perpetrated in the name of religious gods. Indeed there is plenty to condemn.
Altogether too many religions sects of both major and minor religions, despite verbally professing a desire for peace and justice in the world, are actually pro-war, pro-homicide and pro-violence in practice (or they may be silent on the subject, which is, according to moral theology, the same as being pro-violence).
Obvious examples include those portions of the three major war-justifying religions of the world: fundamentalist Islam, fundamentalist Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity.
I use the term fundamentalist in the sense that the religious person, who ascribes to a fundamentalist point of view, believes, among other dogmatic belief, that their scriptures are inerrant and thus they can find passages in their holy books that justify homicidal violence against their perceived or fingered enemies, while simultaneously ignoring the numerous contradictory passages that forbid violence and homicide and instead prescribe love, hospitality, mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. (MORE)
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in Religion | Comments Off
The Wall Street Journal reported on January 19 that the Obama administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Investigation is revealing that it did not just happen occasionally, but was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s; and that it may have clouded the titles of millions of homes. If the settlement is agreed to, it will let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail – fraud, forgery, securities violations and tax evasion.
To the president’s credit, however, he seems to have shifted his position on the settlement in response to protests before his State of the Union address. In his speech on January 24, President Obama did not mention the settlement, but announced instead that he would be creating a mortgage crisis unit to investigate wrongdoing related to real estate lending. “This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” he said. (MORE)
Just when I was reading a posting about Facebook and Google drawing the ire of their customers (all of us), (STORY IS HERE) along comes an email from my Inbox explaining about Google’s new privacy policy. Hmm. How interesting. So what’s in it?
Here are a couple of examples along with a link to find out more:
Dear Google user,
We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.
We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.
So, honestly, who takes the time to read all the legalese regarding any terms of service, license or privacy policy? Maybe it’s time to start.
This gem is included in the email:
Understand how Google uses your data
If you want to learn more about your data on Google and across the web, including tips and advice for staying safe online, check out http://www.google.com/goodtoknow
I guess time will tell and we’ll see if an increased amount of SPAM starts showing up in my Google Inbox.
Jim Jim Swanson is editor and founder of Progressive News Daily
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in Internet | Comments Off
Let’s say you are a mayor of a town that has terrorized brown people for years. Four of your cops get arrested and charged with violating the civil rights of Latino residents, who make up 10 percent of your town. The local station interviews you about the arrests and asks you what you are doing to heal the wounds.
Here’s some advice—don’t talk for four minutes about your dinner options.
He’s a Republican, of course
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in racism | Comments Off
BY JOHN MCCORMACK The Democratic Underground via The Weekly Standard
After asking Mitt Romney twice whether the amount of taxes he paid was “fair,” Univision host Jorge Ramos cut to the chase. “Governor, how much money do you have?”
“Well, you tell me and I’ll tell you–I’m kidding,” Romney replied, with a characteristic Romney chuckle. He said he’d already put that rough figure out in a financial disclosure forms, but Ramos wanted specifics. “Two hundred and fifty million?” he asked. “It’s between 150 and 200 some odd million dollars,” Romney finally replied. “I didn’t inherit that money,” he added.
During his appearance at the candidates forum at Miami-Dade College, Romney deflected questions about his wealth by casting himself as the champion of average American workers. “I know what it takes to make America the most attractive place for jobs again,” he said. “I want to do that not because I’m worried about the one percent. The 1 percent’s doing fine. I want to help the 99 percent. I want to help middle-Americans get jobs that pay good wages.”
As for the fairness of his tax rate, Romney said that “when you add together all the taxes and the charity, particularly in the last year, I think it reaches almost forty percent that I gave back to the community.” Romney also explained why the capital gains tax is lower than the tax on wages, and why he wants to eliminate the capital gains tax for middle income Americans. (MORE)
An Uzbekistan man living in Denver has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a militant Islamic group in his home country.
Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested Saturday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport prior to boarding a Polish Airlines flight to Istanbul.
Federal agents suspect Mr. Muhtorov was on his way to volunteer for a mission or missions to help the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbekistan-based militant group seeking to establish a government based on Islamic law.
Court documents filed in the case read at times more like a slapstick comedy than a deadly serious terror operation. The suspect and an alleged overseas terror contact overuse the word “wedding” as a code word, and at one point jointly curse the FBI agents who they believe – correctly – are monitoring their every utterance. (MORE)
By Byron Acohido, Scott Martin and Jon Swartz USA TODAY
Google and Facebook might have finally gotten the average consumer riled up about privacy.
For the past two years, each company has experimented with different ways to divine more and more about how people live their lives on the Internet, without sparking a revolt.
But the plans the rivals announced on Tuesday, which critics say could dramatically rev up their respective abilities to gather intelligence on individual Internet users, seem to have struck a chord. An informal and unscientific survey of Web users by USA TODAY found a majority speaking out against the new business practices announced by Google and Facebook.
“It’s dangerous for two companies to have so much personal data, regardless of whether the specific threats of that data consolidation are immediately clear,” says Sarah Downey, a privacy analyst at software maker Abine.
Compelled to tap what many experts predict will be the next big Internet mother lode — online advertising — Google and Facebook laid down very big bets, during a week when European regulators are hashing out strict new rules that could prevent much of what the tech giants seek to do. (MORE)
The winner of Florida’s bruising Republican presidential primary probably will be the candidate who uses traditional mass-marketing tools such as advertising, robo-calls and mailings most effectively.
The intimate town-hall meetings that marked campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have little impact in a state of 19 million people with 10 media markets and an electorate as diverse as the nation.
Florida is “not a state built for old-fashioned campaigning. It’s built for a media campaign,” said Aubrey Jewett, an associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida.
“What works is an effective message, and there is evidence that an effective negative ad can move people more than a positive ad,” said Stephen Craig, a professor and the director of the political campaigning program at the University of Florida.
(Don't point AT the President like that you old skank. Respect him, for he is your leader, Bitch!)
Arizona Governor Jan “Wrinkles” Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.
The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One’s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.
Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.” (It sucks – JS)
Brewer recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.
Obama was objecting to Brewer’s description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. (She needed it-JS) In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. “He did blow me off at ASU,”(He should have blown her up!-JS) she said in the television interview in November. (MORE)
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in President Obama | Comments Off
The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it was likely to raise interest rates at the end of 2014, but not until then, adding another 18 months to the expected duration of its most basic and longest-running response to the financial crisis.
The announcement means that the Fed does not expect the economy to complete its recovery from the 2008 crisis over the next three years. By holding short-term rates near zero beyond mid-2013, its previous estimate, the Fed hopes to hasten that process somewhat by reducing the cost of borrowing.
The Fed said in a statement that the economy had expanded “moderately” in recent weeks, but that unemployment remained at a high level, the housing sector remained in a deep depression, and events in Europe continued to threaten renewed prosperity.
The statement, released after a two-day meeting of the Fed’s policy-making committee, said that the Fed intended to keep rates near zero until late 2014.
In a separate set of statements, the Fed said that it now expected the economy to expand between 2.2 and 2.7 percent this year, a slightly slower pace than its November forecast that growth could reach 2.9 percent. (MORE)
A convicted murderer on death row in North Carolina wrote a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper about his life of “leisure” in prison and making a mockery of the legal system.
Danny Robbie Hembree Jr. was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Heather Catterton in 2009 and was sentenced to death on Nov. 18, 2011.
Hembree, 50, is on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., but he’s not looking for any pity in the letter he sent to The Gaston Gazette.
“Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color TV in the A.C., reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day,” Hembree asked in the letter. “I’m housed in a building that connects to the new 55 million dollar hospital with round the clock free medical care 24/7.”
He also asks if the public knows that the chances of his “lawful murder” taking place in the next 20 years, if ever, are “very slim.” (MORE)
Could the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they’re not used for baseball?
If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.
Now, a new bill would punish owners of teams who play in publicly funded stadiums if they don’t provide a haven for the homeless. Affected ballparks would include the Miami Marlins’ new ballpark in Miami’s Little Havana, the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and several spring training facilities. It also includes the homes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Miami Heat, Jacksonville Jaguars and Florida Panthers.
The newspaper estimates that owners might have to return $30 million in benefits that were already bestowed if the bill passes and they can’t prove they were running homeless shelters (to the newspaper’s knowledge, no teams have been). (MORE)
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in homeless | Comments Off
On Tuesday night, U.S. special operations forces secretly entered Somalia and freed two humanitarian aid workers — one of whom, Jessica Buchanan, is a U.S. citizen — from captivity by Somali kidnappers. Not a single member of the U.S. raiding team was harmed; neither were the hostages. All nine Somali captors, whom Pentagon spokesman George Little described as “heavily armed,” were killed.
The AP reports that the same Navy SEAL Team that killed Osama bin Laden last year was involved in the Somali raid; the Pentagon did not confirm that, but said it was a “joint” operation, meaning elite forces from the other services — most likely including Air Force air controllers, and members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment — also took part.
The last time elite U.S. forces staged in Somalia this large and this public, it ended in a disaster. A warlord’s forces downed a helicopter over Mogadishu in 1993 and dragged the corpses of U.S. troops through the streets, an incident broadcast around the world and immortalized in the movie Black Hawk Down.
But now, for the special operations community, it might be Black Hawk Up.
The Pentagon did not release many specifics on Wednesday morning about the raid itself, but said it took “hours” and was in the final stages during President Obama’s State of the Union address last night. It took place under the authority and control of U.S. Africa Command, and occurred at an “encampment” at Gadaado, in north-central Somalia. There are no indications thus far that any military equipment was lost during the operation, as happened with a stealth helicopter during the bin Laden raid. (MORE)
January 25th, 2012 | Posted in Way To Go | Comments Off
A by-the-numbers look at why it would be both cruel and ineffective to offset the payroll tax holiday by denying the child tax credit to the American children of immigrants.
Senate Democratic leaders will peg their 2012 legislative agenda to the President Obama’s State of the Union address and make Mitt Romney the centerpiece of their rationale to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Democratic leaders say Romney’s tax returns, which show he and his wife paid a 14 percent tax rate on $27 million in income in 2010, have thrust him into the middle of the Senate debate. Romney earned nearly $43 million over the past two years and will pay just over $6 million in taxes.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Romney’s tax returns, made public Tuesday, show Congress needs to act on tax reform.
“The Republican presidential frontrunner is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the tax code. An individual who makes in a two-year period $43 million and pays a tax rate of less than 15 percent suggests that maybe things can be changed a little bit,” Reid said. (MORE)
I have a lot of Mormon friends. Although they are commonly referred to as Mormons, they prefer to be referred to as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or LDS for short). My LDS friends are fantastic, and the ‘fruits of the spirit’ that they exhibit, their moral values, and families are a great demonstration of their faith. I’m almost hesitant to talk about tithing and LDS matters, as I don’t want to be labeled as an anti-Mormon (I’m not), and I’ll probably have a couple thousand folks filling out missionary reference cards about me. However my friends also know that I like spirited debates, I have an ‘open mind’, and they don’t mind that this non-LDS (yet) person comes along for their camping trips.
Mitt Romney just released his tax forms (Washington Post tax documents), and it’s quite possible that it’ll open up a debate that has existed within LDS circles for quite a while. The debate centers around a key question – should they tithe 10% before or after taxes? As a reminder, although Romney has donated more than 10% to charities, tithing is based on how much is given directly to the church.
Tithing Based on Adjusted Gross Income
In 2010, Romney’s adjusted gross income was $21,646,507 and he would tithe $1,525,000 to The Church of Latter-Day Saints. The tithe would represent a 7.0% tithe to the church – below the 10% rule that is set by the church. In 2011, Romney’s adjusted gross income was $20,901,075 and he would tithe $2,600,000 to the church. That tithe would represent a 12.4% tithe to the church – above the 10% rule. (MORE)
A year ago, the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords weighed heavily in the House chamber. A seat with her delegation was left empty during the State of the Union address. Lawmakers wore black-and-white ribbons in her honor.
On Tuesday night, Giffords returned to the House and a standing ovation more than a minute long amid cheers of “Bravo!” from her colleagues. Then she received a long, emotional hug from President Obama. Giffords rested her head on his shoulder and for a moment they rocked back and forth — all at once a welcome-home greeting and farewell embrace following her decision to step down from office and focus on her recovery.
Obama has called Giffords “the very best” in public service, and the president invited her husband, the retired astronaut Mark E. Kelly, to watch the speech from First Lady Michelle Obama’s box in the gallery. Giffords’ mother, Gloria, was in the gallery as well.
The Arizona Democrat left an indelible mark on Congress during her three terms in office, and when she arrived Tuesday with a wide smile, the moment was fraught with emotion. (MORE)
President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between America’s rich and the rest of the public, trying to present an election-year choice between continued leadership toward an economy “built to last” and what he called irresponsible policies of the past that caused an economic collapse.
Declaring that “we’ve come too far to turn back now,” the president used his final State of the Union address before he faces the voters to showcase the extent to which he will try to contrast his core economic principles with those of his Republican rivals in a time of deep economic uncertainty. While many Americans remain disappointed with the state of the economy and the president’s handling of it, Mr. Obama nonetheless tried to bring into relief the difference between where the country was when he took over and where it is now.
“The state of our union is getting stronger,” he declared in time-honored tradition. “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs.” He pointed to renewed hiring by American manufacturers and — borrowing the “built to last” phrase from the auto industry he helped save — he sketched out, albeit vaguely, what he called a blueprint for economic growth in which the wealthy play by the same rules as ordinary Americans. (MORE)
January 24th, 2012 | Posted in President Obama | Comments Off
by Huma Khan, Elizabeth Hartfield, Matt Negrin, Chris Good, Amy Bingham, Jeunee Simon, Greg Krieg, Meg Fowler and Sarah Parnass ABC News
Did the economy crater before President Obama’s inauguration, then rebound once his policies took effect?
It seems unlikely that the president would utter inaccurate jobs numbers during his State of the Union address, but while we wait for official White House citation, the president made at least one claim that for now looks iffy. The transcript:
” In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect. Those are the facts. But so are these. In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.”
4 million jobs lost in 6 months before Obama took office: Looks like this total falls short of 4 million. Subtracting the total employment listed in the January 2009 Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report from the same total in August 2008, one arrives at 3.378 million jobs lost.
Another 4 million jobs lost before Obama’s policies took full effect. Using this Bureau of Labor Statistics table, starting at February 2009, the sum of monthly job losses surpass 4 million in October 2009. President Obama’s stimulus was passed in February 2009-though it took notoriously long for that money to make its way out the door. (MORE)
January 24th, 2012 | Posted in President Obama | Comments Off
Rick Jacobs Chair and Founder The Courage Campaign
(CLICK ABOVE TO SIGN YOUR SUPPORT)
During tonight’s State of the Union address, we will likely learn whether big banks like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase will pay for the plunder of America’s homeowners. After a year of secret negotiations among the 50 state attorneys general, including a walk out by California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, it all comes down to this:
In the fall — thanks to the support of more than 25,000 Courage members — AG Harris rejected another bank bailout, a grotesque deal that would have denied justice to millions of Americans and provided almost no compensation to defrauded California homeowners. Yesterday, a group of state attorneys general met in Chicago to decide whether to accept a deal that insiders claim has vastly improved since September.
Over the next few months, more than 100,000 Californians may lose their homes, people like Donna Vieira of San Leandro who has clear evidence that Wells Fargo defrauded her the moment she signed her mortgage papers. This is just the beginning. Courage Campaign will continue working with its many partners to protect homeowners, including the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), but if our President fights for the values that he proclaimed when running for office, the America’s middle-class will be much closer to the justice it deserves.
Rick Santorum is tired, almost broke — and going home.
Forget the so-called liberal media. Right now Newt Gingrich’s most ardent critics are conservative pundits and columnists, many of whom have launched aggressive campaigns to discredit him and trip up his run for the Republican nomination.
Those who felt let down by Newt Gingrich’s muted performance at Monday night’s debate—and, really, who among us did not?—should expect to get their money’s worth. Live from Jacksonville at 8 p.m., it’s Wolf Blitzer’s turn to be Newt’s media-elite piñata (and, happily, audience reactions will not be discouraged this time).
Over the last few years, the use of tasers by police has been the center of some controversy amongst a few members of the general public. While the devices were originally justified as a means to subdue violent criminals without using lethal force, the fact is that tasers have not replaced lethal force at all. They have, however, replaced reason and common sense.
Sodapop Curtis did not announce Peyton Manning’s retirement. Whether or not Manning’s neck heals months from now will determine that. He did make it clear – in a strange way – that Manning’s 12-year run with the Indianapolis Colts is almost assuredly done.
A story of what may have happened, circa 400 AD in the Mayan city-state of Copan, with historical liberties taken:
Tuesday night’s State of the Union response by Mitch Daniels was remarkable before he uttered a single word. Daniels’ response was the first to be delivered from a building surrounded by dozens of police cars and chanting activists, by a man on the cusp of delivering a body blow to workers’ rights. “We were surprised, frankly,” says Jeff Harris of the Indiana AFL-CIO, “that the Republicans would choose somebody who is in open war with his constituents and his citizens and put him up as the national speaker for the Republican Party.” For anyone who thought that progressive victories in Wisconsin and Ohio would lead the national Republican party to tone down the union-bashing, last night was a rude awakening.
From time to time, I read about condemnations of religion coming from non-religious groups, especially concerning the all-too-common violence perpetrated in the name of religious gods. Indeed there is plenty to condemn.
After asking Mitt Romney twice whether the amount of taxes he paid was “fair,” Univision host Jorge Ramos cut to the chase. “Governor, how much money do you have?”
Google and Facebook might have finally gotten the average consumer riled up about privacy.
A year ago, the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords weighed heavily in the House chamber. A seat with her delegation was left empty during the State of the Union address. Lawmakers wore black-and-white ribbons in her honor.
